Daily Blog •August 9, 2011

In my July 28 blog, I gave you my homefield edges for 2011 and today I want to take a look at the best home records of the last decade and also look at some interesting variables. First here is the complete list of all 120 teams for home records.

Home Records 2001-2010

Rank
Team Win Loss Total %
1
Boise St 63 2 65 96.92%
2
Oklahoma 61 2 63 96.83%
3
Ohio St 64 7 71 90.14%
4
TCU 51 7 58 87.93%
5
Troy 41 6 47 87.23%
6
USC 52 8 60 86.67%
7
LSU 61 10 71 85.92%
8
Texas 52 9 61 85.25%
9
Utah 49 9 58 84.48%
10
Virginia Tech 57 11 68 83.82%
11
Texas Tech 51 11 62 82.26%
12
Florida 54 12 66 81.82%
12
Iowa 54 12 66 81.82%
14
Georgia 51 12 63 80.95%
15
West Virginia 52 13 65 80.00%
16
Wisconsin 55 14 69 79.71%
17
Oregon 51 13 64 79.69%
18
Auburn 58 15 73 79.45%
19
Nebraska 56 16 72 77.78%
20
Boston College 50 15 65 76.92%
21
Hawaii 62 19 81 76.54%
22
Miami 48 15 63 76.19%
23
Penn St 53 17 70 75.71%
24
Northern Illinois 43 14 57 75.44%
25
Louisville 46 16 62 74.19%
26
Fresno St 43 15 58 74.14%
26
Toledo 43 15 58 74.14%
28
Oregon St 45 16 61 73.77%
28
USF 45 16 61 73.77%
30
Alabama 53 19 72 73.61%
31
BYU 44 16 60 73.33%
32
Clemson 49 18 67 73.13%
33
Michigan 51 19 70 72.86%
34
Marshall 42 16 58 72.41%
35
Arkansas 52 20 72 72.22%
36
Missouri 44 17 61 72.13%
37
Southern Miss 41 16 57 71.93%
38
Maryland 46 18 64 71.88%
39
Cincinnati 43 17 60 71.67%
39
Nevada 43 17 60 71.67%
41
Tennessee 50 20 70 71.43%
41
Florida St 45 18 63 71.43%
43
Kansas St 48 20 68 70.59%
44
Oklahoma St 46 20 66 69.70%
45
Connecticut 43 19 62 69.35%
46
Georgia Tech 43 20 63 68.25%
46
California 43 20 63 68.25%
48
Pittsburgh 43 21 64 67.19%
49
Arizona St 45 22 67 67.16%
50
South Carolina 46 23 69 66.67%
51
Virginia 43 22 65 66.15%
52
Arkansas St 35 18 53 66.04%
53
Texas A&M 44 23 67 65.67%
54
UCLA 40 21 61 65.57%
55
Bowling Green 34 18 52 65.38%
56
Louisiana Tech 33 18 51 64.71%
57
Air Force 39 22 61 63.93%
58
Colorado 38 22 60 63.33%
58
Houston 38 22 60 63.33%
58
Tulsa 38 22 60 63.33%
61
Michigan St 43 25 68 63.24%
62
Navy 34 20 54 62.96%
63
Kansas 41 25 66 62.12%
64
UCF 37 23 60 61.67%
65
Middle Tennessee 32 20 52 61.54%
66
Purdue 41 26 67 61.19%
67
NC State 41 27 68 60.29%
68
Mississippi 40 27 67 59.70%
69
WKU 34 23 57 59.65%
70
Central Michigan 31 21 52 59.62%
71
Notre Dame 38 26 64 59.38%
72
Western Michigan 32 22 54 59.26%
73
Iowa St 38 27 65 58.46%
74
East Carolina 32 24 56 57.14%
75
Miami, Ohio 29 22 51 56.86%
76
Colorado St 31 24 55 56.36%
77
Minnesota 37 29 66 56.06%
78
Northwestern 34 27 61 55.74%
79
Wake Forest 35 28 63 55.56%
80
Rice 28 23 51 54.90%
80
Akron 28 23 51 54.90%
82
UAB 29 24 53 54.72%
82
Ohio 29 24 53 54.72%
84
UTEP 32 27 59 54.24%
85
Stanford 32 28 60 53.33%
86
New Mexico 33 29 62 53.23%
87
North Carolina 33 30 63 52.38%
88
Rutgers 34 31 65 52.31%
89
Florida Atlantic 25 23 48 52.08%
90
Kentucky 35 33 68 51.47%
91
San Jose St 27 26 53 50.94%
92
San Diego St 30 29 59 50.85%
93
Memphis 32 31 63 50.79%
94
Illinois 31 31 62 50.00%
94
Washington St 31 31 62 50.00%
94
ULM 25 25 50 50.00%
94
Louisiana 27 27 54 50.00%
98
Syracuse 31 32 63 49.21%
99
Wyoming 29 30 59 49.15%
100
Arizona 32 34 66 48.48%
101
Kent St 26 28 54 48.15%
102
Washington 31 34 65 47.69%
103
Indiana 30 33 63 47.62%
104
Ball St 25 29 54 46.30%
105
Baylor 29 34 63 46.03%
106
Utah St 23 27 50 46.00%
107
New Mexico St 25 32 57 43.86%
108
SMU 26 34 60 43.33%
108
Tulane 26 34 60 43.33%
110
Mississippi St 28 37 65 43.08%
111
Temple 24 32 56 42.86%
112
FIU 19 27 46 41.30%
113
North Texas 21 31 52 40.38%
114
Idaho 20 30 50 40.00%
115
UNLV 22 37 59 37.29%
116
Vanderbilt 21 44 65 32.31%
117
Eastern Michigan 16 34 50 32.00%
118
Army 17 38 55 30.91%
119
Buffalo 16 39 55 29.09%
120
Duke 14 48 62 22.58%
Totals 4625 2690 7315 63.23%

 

It is no surprise that Boise St is atop the list as their blue uniforms blend in with the blue turf giving them a unique advantage. Only one team has beaten them at home during the regular season and that was way back in 2001 when a Wash St team that finished 10-2 and #10 in the polls beat them 41-20. Their other home loss was in a bowl game vs Boston College 27-21 in 2005. While Boise has an incredible home record it must be factored in that they have played just 7 BCS conference schools at home this decade and are 5-2 in those games. That makes Oklahoma's record of 61-2 even more remarkable. Almost all of their home games have been vs BCS foes and ironically one of their two home losses was to a non-BCS school when TCU beat them in 2005. Their other loss came when they were a 4 TD favorite to beat rival Oklahoma St which came into the game just 3-7 and that was the game that put Les Miles on the map. Oklahoma was caught looking ahead to their Big 12 title game vs Colorado the next week but that loss knocked them out of the game.

Eight teams have single digit losses at home this decade. Troy (6), Ohio St (7), TCU (7), USC (8), Texas (9), Utah (9) and Virginia Tech (9) have all lost less than 1 game at home per year. Here are some schools that rank near the top that the casual college football fan probably would not expect. Texas Tech is 51-11 at home this decade with Lubbock an out the way location with a loud home crowd. Despite having one of the smallest stadium capacities (44,500) for BCS schools, Boston College is 50-15 at Alumni. Northern Illinois is one of the loudest places to play despite the small capacity and they are 43-14 at home.

Is there an advantage to playing at home?

The 120 FBS teams have a combined home record of 4625-2690 which means that they win 63.2% of their home games. Also there are 97 of the 120 teams that have a record of .500 or better at home and just 23 teams that have a losing record at home this decade.

Let me take a closer look at the teams at the bottom of the list. All 23 teams listed above that had losing records at home have losing records overall this decade. There are 8 BCS conference schools on the list in Syracuse, Arizona, Washington, Indiana, Baylor, Mississippi St, Vanderbilt and Duke. When Duke wins opposing players usually say they were lulled to sleep by the high school sized crowds and they have pulled some upsets like upsetting Clemson in 2004 and Georgia Tech in 2003 but 6 of their 14 wins at home this decade have been vs FCS or 1AA foes so they are actually 8-47 at home vs FBS teams this decade.

That got me thinking of how many times a team has been an underdog at home this decade. Is there any team in the country that has not been an underdog even once at home? The answer is yes and it is Oklahoma who has lost only two of those. Florida has been a home dog just once in the "Swamp" and that was vs Florida St a game they did lose 38-34. Vegas linesmakers knew what they were doing with Boise St as they have been a home dog just twice this decade and those were their two home losses.

It probably does not surprise you that Duke has been a home dog 46 times this decade which is the most of any school.
That got me looking at two more scenarios. First of all which teams have been overrated at home. I took the amount of times a team was expected to lose at home (an underdog) and subtracted the amount of actual losses they suffered at home. There are 3 teams who lost 12 games (or more) than the amount of games they were expected to lose at home and the list is a little surprising. Florida St lost 18 games (12 in L/5 yrs) at home but were only a dog 4 times which puts them at the top of the list with 14.

Here are the teams that lost 12 or more games at home than was expected. 1. Florida St 14 2. Middle Tennessee 13 3. Southern Miss 12

Now lets take a look at the underrated home teams from this decade. I know Virginia has been a much better team at home than on the road. They are 43-22 at home and just 17-37 when playing on the road. It surprises me that they have been expected to lose (underdog) 29 times at home this decade and yet they have lost just 22 times. That is 7 full games better than expected and that is the 2nd best in the FBS. As you would expect the numbers are a lot lower for teams who actually have less losses at home than games they were expected to lose.

Here are the top 3 teams. Rice with 9. Virginia with 7 and Nevada with 5.

Tomorrow I take a look at the best road teams this decade.

23 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!